1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an image sensor chip and its manufacturing method and, more particularly, to an image sensor chip that may have a plate, a wafer for the image sensor chip that may have a plate, and a method that may be implemented to manufacture the image sensor chip.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image sensor module may capture images of a subject and may output electrical signals using a photoelectric converter and charge-coupled device, for example. The image sensor module may include a solid-state imaging device such as a charge-coupled device (CCD) and/or a CMOS image sensor (CIS), for example.
Image sensor modules may be implemented in digital cameras, digital camcorders, mobile phones, multimedia personal computers, and monitoring cameras, for example. The demand for image sensor modules may have increased.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional image sensor module 10 may include an image sensor chip 2 mounted on an upper surface of a circuit substrate 1 (e.g., a flexible circuit substrate). A lens unit 7 may be mounted on the upper surface of the circuit substrate 1. The lens unit 7 may surround a periphery of the image sensor chip 2.
Chip pads 4 may be provided on an active surface 3 of the image sensor chip 2. A micro-lens 5 may be provided on the active surface 3 of the image sensor chip 2. Bonding wires 6 may electrically connect the chip pads 4 of the image sensor chip 2 to the circuit substrate 1. A lens unit lens 8 may be mounted on the lens unit 7. The lens unit lens 8 may face the micro-lens 5.
During manufacture of the image sensor module 10, the active surface 3 of the image sensor chip 2 may be exposed prior to the lens unit 7 being mounted on the image sensor chip 2. Thus, particles in the air may adhere to (and contaminate) the micro-lens 5. Such contamination may decrease the desired functioning of the micro-lens 5, which may (in some cases) become a defective component in the finished image sensor module 10.